Whether private or public, simple or complex, a decision is a familiar part of everyday life. A decision not only can change someone’s life in a good or bad way, but that decision can also alter the lives of their family, their friends, and their community. This paper is about a scenario involving Mike, the lab technician, who is facing a critical decision whether or not to clean up a spill on the entrance of the hospital. Apparently, Mike has been late for work lately that his manager warned him that he could face termination if he reports late for work again. Unfortunately, that day, he was running late again due to an accident backing up the road he commutes to work. …show more content…
As the patient did not know about the spill, Mike, on the other hand, should have prevented this problem this morning by just clean up the spill or get someone’s else to clean it. Because Mike knows now about the possible legal case that could file against the hospital, he might be afraid to come up front owning up his mistake and further jeopardize his job. Per Renkema, Broekhuis & Ahaus (2014), cases where fear of disciplinary actions cause health workers to fail to disclose incidences where they neglected to be prudent. In most cases, the hospital will end up paying the patient for the …show more content…
However, as a manager, the first thing to do is to talk to the injured patient and admit that as a hospital, we fail to keep her safe. Next is to assure the patient that the hospital will cover her treatment costs as a way to refrain her from suing the hospital. Apparently, this solution could be cheaper as compared to allowing her to file a medical malpractice case against the hospital.
If I, as a manager, found that Mike knew about the spill and did not do anything about it. Then, as a result of this negligence act, the hospital now is facing with this big mess, I would not fire him. However, I would teach him about the way to make a critical decision, and as a healthcare worker, patient safety always comes first when thinking through a decision. As a way to ensure that other team members do not duplicate the mistake that Mike has made, I would revise what quality control systems being in place regarding this type of issue and provide the staff members a detail about the metrics for the hospital. It could be as a result that team members do not know how to handle this issue. Also, I would urge that staffs practice responsibility and selflessness. When safety measure is an issue, any staff from any department should be able to take care the safety